NCEI added Alaska climate divisions to its nClimDiv dataset on Friday, March 6, 2015, coincident with the release of the February 2015 monthly monitoring report. For more information on this data, please visit the Alaska Climate Divisions FAQ.

National Overview

On the national scale,

severe drought affected about 36 percent of the contiguous United States as of the end of June 2002, which is a jump of about 5 percent compared to the end of May and a two-month jump of 10 percent compared to the end of April;

the coverage of the current (November 1999-present) national-scale drought first peaked in August 2000 at about 36% of the contiguous U.S., which was as extensive as the major droughts of the last 40 years, but not as large as the "dust bowl" droughts of the 1930's and 1950's;

the total drought area decreased to about 10 percent by November 2000, but has shown a general increasing trend for much of the period since then, reaching in June 2002 the peak it had first reached in August 2000 (see graph below left);

on a broad scale, the last two decades were characterized by unusual wetness with short periods of extensive droughts, whereas the 1930's and 1950's were characterized by prolonged periods of extensive droughts with little wetness (see graph below right);

although various parts of the U.S. have experienced unusually wet conditions during the last 32 months, little change occurred in the aggregate national wetness picture during much of this period;

the percentage of the nation severely wet has remained below about eleven percent during this period, reaching about 2 percent by the end of June 2002 (see graph below left);

a file containing the national monthly percent area severely dry and wet from 1900 to present is available;

historical temperature, precipitation, and Palmer drought data from 1895 to present for climate divisions, states, and regions in the contiguous U.S. are available at the Climate Division: Temperature-Precipitation-Drought Data page in files having names that start with "drd964x" and ending with "txt" (without the quotes).

Although some areas of the U.S. had above normal precipitation, many areas were very dry. Integrated across the nation, June 2002 precipitation averaged below normal. Twelve of the last 34 months have averaged well below the normal, while only three averaged well above normal (see graph top right). National 2001-2002 precipitation ranks:

Two other drought-related monitoring tools are the Vegetation Health Index and the Keetch-Byram Drought Index:

NOAA satellite observations of vegetation health from mid-June revealed stress on vegetation across much of the southwestern U.S. and in parts of the Plains, northern and central Rockies, and central Appalachians to southern Great Lakes.

The USDA Forest Service uses a satellite-based vegetation health index tool to monitor the risk of wildfires. This Greenness Index for late June revealed above-average stress on vegetation across much of the West and Great Plains, as well as parts of the southern Great Lakes and mid-Atlantic regions.

The Keetch-Byram Drought Index (KBDI) is used by the Wildland Fire Assessment System to monitor the risk of wildfires. The end-of-June KBDI showed dry conditions across much of the southern half of the country. The Forest Service fire danger analysis indicated a high risk of wildfires from the Southwest into the northern and central Great Plains. The fire threat conditions can change rapidly from week to week.

Western U.S. Drought

While above-normal rain fell across parts of the Pacific Northwest and northern Rockies, the Northwest region on the whole was drier than normal, with June marking the second consecutive slightly drier than normal month. However, this month marked the tenth and sixth consecutive drier-than-normal month, respectively, for the Southwest and West regions (see graphs below). Water year (October 2001-present) precipitation totals were above average in the Northwest, but totals dropped precipitously toward the Rockies and the Southwest.

Several wildfires developed in the West during June, with Colorado and Arizona experiencing their largest wildfires ever. According to the June 22 New York Times,

"The Arizona fires pushed national firefighting efforts to an unusual level for June. With 18 large fires burning in eight states — Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, declared the country at Level 5, the earliest that has ever been reached. It means that fires are raging in more than two geographical areas, and that they have the potential to exhaust all available federal firefighters and fire equipment."

As of early July (the week ending July 7), 37% of the nation's range and pastures had moisture conditions ranked as poor to very poor by the USDA. Five western states had more than 70% of their range and pastures in poor to very poor conditions:

Central U.S. Drought

June 2002 saw an expansion of drought into the central and northern Plains states and a continuation of dry conditions across parts of the southern Plains. This was the seventh consecutive month with below-normal precipitation, regionwide, for the West North Central region and third consecutive dry month, regionwide, for the South region. According to the USDA, moisture conditions in some of the agricultural states grew progressively worse during the month.

Eastern U.S. Drought

Much of the Northeast region experienced continued relief from drought as June 2002 marked the fourth consecutive month with above-normal precipitation. The Southeast region did not fare as well. Southern and central Florida had a very wet June, but much of Virginia, Tennessee, and the Carolinas were dry (see map below left). This month marked the ninth consecutive month with slightly to much below normal precipitation averaged across the Southeast (see graph below right).

Severe to extreme long-term drought persisted from southern Pennsylvania to central Georgia. In spite of recent rains, the late 2001 to February 2002 moisture deficits were so severe that many states up and down the east coast had the tenth driest, or drier, July-June on record.

A detailed discussion of drought conditions is available for the following regions and states:

Drought conditions on the Canadian prairies can be found at the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Drought Watch page.

Citing This Report

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, State of the Climate: Drought for June 2002, published online July 2002, retrieved on August 2, 2015 from http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/drought/200206.